Many bowling accessories have been developed represented by wrist splints, tape to be put into ball holes, towels, finger plugs which attach to the bowling ball, resin bags, and various skin adhesives all of which have the purpose of allowing the bowler better grip and control of the ball.
One particular bowling aid, the glove has had many attempts at introduction, but most have proved unsatisfactory. Prior art in gloves has usually attempted to combine in some way, a variation of a glove (with multiple finger sleeves, some of the sleeves open and some closed) and a wrist and/or forearm support stiffened by plates of some rigid substance as in the devices of Charles Robinson, Edward Patton, James Duggin, George Hollman, and Charles Purin. This combination of glove and wrist brace, was an attempt at controlling position of the hand and wrist in a straight line during delivery of the ball, for better ball control.
Attempts at decreasing impact to the bowler's hand by proponents of the glove plus wrist brace concept were made by inserting various foam pouches in the finger sleeves (Kenneth Mitchell), or by using a resilient pad in the palm or long and ring finger sleeves as in the inventions of Robert Krzewinski et al, Joseph Andolino, and Torrence Ingold.
An attempt at improving velocity of the bowling ball was made by Charles Purin with his invention comprised of a rigid wrist plate and a rigid hand plate with rigid projections to the fingers. Another attempt to increase ball velocity was made by placing a spring in the palmar pocket of a glove invented by Brigidi and Hebling.
Placing weights in a glove applied to the bowler's opposite free hand to provide counterbalance to the ball-holding hand was advocated by Lewis Wester.
An entirely different idea was put forth by another group of inventors who espoused that only finger covers and not gloves might help the control, grip, and delivery of the bowling ball. These finger covers were sometimes rigid in character (David Albert); were sometimes control loops or straps attached by proximal extensions to the hand (James Loafman, Albert Rasche); and in other devices the finger supports were attached to a glove via knobs to prevent overtaxing muscles (William Gooch). Some inventors created a finger support totally unattached proximally and used it to cover only the little finger of the bowling hand, predicated on the concept that during ball release the little finger support alone would center the ball in the palm and allow greater control (Paul Buneta).
None of the aforementioned devices have stood the test of time. Only two gloves produced by Ebonite and AMF have had only fair success to date. The Ebonite example of prior art termed the Ultra-Gripper.TM. has a sprayed-on Tackified.TM. substance placed onto thin soft leather which must be rejuvenated weekly by washing the glove with soap and water. The soft thin leather offers no protection to the joints or skin of the bowler, particularly the young and elderly bowler, whose joints and skin are particularly prone to injury. The Ebonite glove fails to provide shock absorbency to the joints. The AMF glove has a rough surface rubber palm and finger section without splinting benefit to the index or little fingers and offers no direct benefit to the skin other than a claim of being "breatheable".
The present invention attempts to deal with the shortcomings of prior art in a different, yet simple way, by fusing a prosthetic quality silicone onto an elastomeric fabric such as, but not limited to, spandex-nylon. Silicone has not previously been used in the manner in which it is employed in the present invention. Silicone has been incorporated into tubular plugs which are then glued into the bowling ball holes themselves, but the manner and method of use in the present invention are completely different.
Silicone is generally thought of as a lubricating substance rather than a shear force resisting substance, the property of which being easily illustrated by placing a flat piece of "cured" prosthetic silicone on any polished table top and then trying to move the piece of silicone sideways along the tabletop using one or two fingers. One instantly finds that the piece of silicone resists movement and appears to stick to the tabletop. The "cured" prosthetic silicone also has the ability to be compressed, and itself to be slightly elastic which allows for a significant degree of shock impact absorbancy depending on the firmness of which the silicone is "cured" based on the Shore durometer system of firmness rating. Also of significant importance is the fact that stiffness of the device may be controlled by using the appropriate silicone of higher Shore durometer rating plus, applying multiple coatings of the silicone in its "pre-cured" state to form the device.
Because of improved grip and control that the present invention allows the bowler to impart to the bowling ball, the bowler is able to throw or deliver a lighter weight ball with greater velocity thus employing a greater kinetic energy to strike the pins as the kinetic energy is represented by the formula:
KE=1/2 MV.sup.2 where PA1 KE=Kinetic Energy PA1 M=Mass or Weight of the bowling ball PA1 V=Velocity
which clearly shows that the greatest increase in kinetic energy comes from the velocity with which the ball is thrown raised to the 2nd power or squared.
Also, it has been recently shown medically, that "cured" silicone when in contact with the skin, has the ability to soften the skin and reduce scar formation. Sheets of this type of silicone are being used at the present time as post-surgical dressings to control the scarification process. The present invention contains a thin coating of silicone inside the finger sleeves of the glove, purposely contacting the skin of the fingers and palm in order to prevent or decrease callous formation, nail splitting and separation, and deformity.
Thus by addressing all the important factors of ball handling such as grip, control, impact, velocity, and hand protection,--the present invention sets itself uniquely apart from all prior art.